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Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s forthcoming autobiography has been at the top of the Amazon book charts for weeks, and it hasn’t even been released yet. At least in the eyes of the political Left, she is now perhaps America’s most visible national Republican. But new Rasmussen Reports national telephone surveying finds Palin losing handily in face-to-face march-ups with her two likeliest challengers for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. Among likely Republican primary voters, Palin now trails former Arkansas governor-turned-Fox-TV-host Mike Huckabee by 20 points – 55% to 35%. When her opponent is ex-Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Palin loses by...

If the choice for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 comes down to a choice between Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, Huckabee has a slight edge. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Republican voters finds that 44% prefer Huckabee, 39% favor Romney, and 17% are not sure. Data released yesterday showed that Huckabee and Romney lead all hopefuls in an early look at the 2012 race. Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich also attract double-digit support. Both Huckabee and Romney are viewed favorably by 78% of Republican voters. However, intensity leans a bit in Huckabee’s favor. Forty-six percent (46%)...

Mitt Romney is lending a helping hand to Nebraska Republicans, the latest in a string of political favors as the 2008 presidential candidate surveys the 2012 landscape. The former Massachusetts governor will be the keynote speaker Friday night at the Nebraska Republican Party's biennial Founders' Day event in Omaha. Romney may make another run at the GOP presidential nomination next cycle, but an adviser says right now the former Massachusetts governor's concentrating on helping fellow Republicans in the next election. "Gov. Romney is traveling the country, speaking to Republican organizations, raising money for candidates, and doing what he can to...

Mitt Romney, the early favorite of many for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, is making nice with his rivals from the last race. The former Massachusetts governor, who was the source of much consternation among his opponents during the GOP presidential primaries last year, has made strides to repair those relationships in recent days. The latest example came Saturday in Romney’s speech to the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference in Michigan, in which Romney will praise former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s (R) effort to clean up New York and suggest Detroit could use a similar program. “Detroit needs to...

So what’s going on in the Virginia's governor’s race? Most Republicans are not yet in a state of panic; the level of enthusiasm among grassroots Democrats had been low most of this year. With the Washington Post’s thesis story energizing Democrats, it's a close race, with a slight GOP advantage at the moment. The Washington Post poll that told the story of a changed race, and a dramatic surge for Creigh Deeds, still has Republican Bob McDonnell at 51 percent. But perhaps the most intriguing result came when the Post asked Virginians whether the state needs “a governor who can...

It's a rare day when a Rasmussen poll unnerves Republicans, and they can take solace in a poll commissioned by Daily Kos. But that's what's happening in Virginia, where Rasmussen's latest puts Republican Bob McDonnell up by only two percentage points over Creigh Deeds, 48 percent to 46 percent. Two weeks ago, Rasmussen had McDonnell up by 9 percentage points. The Daily Kos poll by Research 2000 puts McDonnell up 50–43, trailing among women by only 3 percentage points and leading among independents, 51 percent to 38 percent. Could Rasmussen be right? Could the thesis story, and relentless ads suggesting...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 34% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-eight percent (38%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -4. That’s the President’s best Approval Index rating in over a month

Hopefully Sarah Palin realizes she's been invited to Hong Kong as a practical joke. CLSA, the Asia-focused broker who invited Mrs. Palin as keynote speaker for an Asian investment conference, is well known for their cheeky takes on investment research. In the past, they've polled Asian fortune tellers for index targets, hired anime cartoonists to draw Japanese research, and generally love to push the boundaries between entertainment and analysis. They are a real research firm, it's just that they love to sprinkle in some hilarity every now and then as a smart marketing gimmick. Sarah Palin is this year's big...

So much for conservatives’ insistence on not injecting Teddy’s death into the health-care debate, I guess. Although Stephanopoulos is right: This is less about The One and ObamaCare than it is about Huck’s growing rivalry with a certain darling of the base who was way ahead of him on this subject. Which Democrat will toss it back first? Will any Republicans jump on it by challenging Huckabee head-on? One thing’s for sure: by joining the debate in this time in this way, Huckabee is showing how determined he is not to be outmaneuvered by Sarah Palin in the early 2012...

A new Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll looked at who watched the three big cable news networks (Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC), and whether they thought them reliable sources of news. Key findings: Conservatives (and the South) watch Fox News and little else. Independents watch little at all Democrats split their dial between CNN and MSNBC 18-29 year olds don't watch much cable news, but they particularly shun Fox.

Our fifth monthly national survey matching up Barack Obama against some possible 2012 opponents comes to the same two primary conclusions as the other four: 1) Obama leads all comers 2) Mike Huckabee, at least at this early stage, is the strongest GOP candidate In this particular iteration of the poll, Huckabee comes the closest to Obama that he has yet, trailing just 47-44. That's tightened since the President led 48-42 a month ago. Huckabee also has the best overall favorability rating of the Republican quartet we tested, at 45/28. Huckabee is not the most popular candidate among GOP voters...

Conservative talk radio has never been more angry and extreme than today. You might think that’s a response to the Obama presidency. But even more, conservative talkers are responding to a collapse in advertising revenues. According to Scott Fybush, the proprietor of North East Radio Watch, talk radio has lost 30-40% of its ad revenues over the past two years. Further, in an interview with a talk radio trade publication, Talkers Magazine, late last year, Talk Radio Networks CEO Mark Masters said: “2008 will be known as the year that weak syndicated programs began dying off in droves,” adding that...

If America elects a woman president soon, right now her name appears to be Hillary Clinton. In a hypothetical match-up between the two most formidable female candidates in their respective parties, Clinton defeats former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin 51% to 39%, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely U.S. voters. Seven percent (7%) prefer some other candidate. Clinton performs better against Palin than President Obama who in a hypothetical 2012 match-up beats last year’s GOP vice presidential nominee by just six points, 48% to 42%. Women overwhelmingly favor Clinton over Palin, 59% to 32%. Men favor...

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Thursday urged fellow Republicans to welcome outsiders into the party ranks, not scorn them, as the GOP rebuilds from defeats that left the White House and Congress in Democratic hands. The potential 2012 presidential candidate, addressing a meeting of the Republican National Committee, appealed to members to build bridges to independents and conservative-leaning Democrats that would win converts and, in turn, elections. To move forward at a time when Republican numbers are shrinking in many states, the party should show "respect of those who don't agree with us," Pawlenty said. "Let's make sure that we...

Now former governor Sarah Palin, there you see the latest FOX News opinion dynamic poll and you can see her favorability rating has dropped. As you look at this next poll, however, the 2012 presidential nominee run, you can see that her prospects have increased since May, up to 17 percent in this poll. What about Sarah Palin, her exit speech, and where she stands now? We're back with the panel BARNES: I had initially thought that her — if she wants a future career as a national political player, that stepping out as governor was a mistake. But I...

Most Americans—54%--still blame President George W. Bush for the nation’s economic woes. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 39% say the policies of President Barack Obama are to blame. Those top-line figures are unchanged from a month ago. Two months ago, 62% blamed Bush. By a two-to-one margin, voters trust their own economic judgment more than the President’s. That, too, is little changed over the past month. However, in February, just 49% trusted their own economic judgment more than the president’s. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of women still blame Bush for the economic problems. That view is shared by...

KABOOM: "A Rasmussen poll released today shows Chris Christie opening up a 13 point lead, 51-38 percent, over Jon Corzine in the New Jersey governor’s race. It marks the first time in the race that a candidate has polled above 50 percent. The poll also showed that 58 percent of New Jersey voters have an unfavorable opinion of Corzine and his net approval rating is negative 16 percent." Markos Moulitsas — yes, the creator of Daily Kos — writes in with some analysis of the latest poll of Virginia voters he commissioned. Bottom line, it's still a very close race,...

49% approve of Obama. 45% disapproval of Obama. 41% approve of Mark Udall. 46% disapproval of Mark Udall. Public Policy Polling had the sample of 38% GOP / 36% Dem / 26% Indie. The base of Udall and Obama's disapproval come from the 30-45 age group. This age group approves of Obama, 44-50. For Udall, its 36-51. Sample size of 1,050 Colorado voters. Poll taken on April 17 to 19, 2009.